Marcel Salathé

Marcel Salathé is interested in how human social dynamics affect disease dynamics (and vice versa). He has a PHD from ETH in Zurich, Switzerland, and did a postdoc at Stanford University. His research group at Penn State University uses complex systems models, wireless sensor network technology and large-scale data sets from online social media sites to analyze the spread of disease and health behaviors on social networks.

Marcel is the author of the book "Nature, in Code" that he wrote while a visiting assistant professor at Stanford University in 2014. "Nature, In Code" is a new type of textbook that teaches programming in JavaScript by implementing key concepts in biology (natural selection, genetic drift, epidemics, evolution of cooperation, etc.).

In 2013, he lead the development of the MOOC "Epidemics - the Dynamics of Infectious Diseases", which is still ranked the Nr. 1 Science MOOC by learner vote on the MOOC review website coursetalk.org.

Experience

–present

Assistant Professor of Biology and Adjunct Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering, Pennsylvania State University